Welcome to donduk. A refuge for those who enjoy Deal or No Deal, the hit Channel 4 gameshow hosted by Noel Edmonds. The award winning gameshow Deal or No Deal has become a big hit for Channel 4 and marks a sensational return to our screens of Noel Edmonds.

Deal or No Deal is enjoyed my millions of viewers daily, where the contestants battle with The Banker to try and win a jackpot of £250,000. Here at donduk you will find full daily reports of each show, as well Deal or No Deal news and specials. Deal or No Deal although initially appearing very simple in format of just opening a few boxes for the chance to win some big money prizes, actually has some potentially complex decisions to be made at points throughout the show, the contestants occasionally try complex or simple gameplay in an attempt to give them an edge in beating the Banker.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Jo's Game Report

Greetings true believers - it's Tuesday evening, and this double-strength DOND week keeps rolling on... I've calculated that between all these editions of DOND, endless Big Brother and the World Cup, that I'm currently watching more hours of TV at the moment than I'm actually awake - that can't be right, can it?

Anyway, this is Adie, your host for this evening's festivities - bienvenue, wilkommen, welcome! I've a hard act to follow in the footsteps of Iain, Sue (& now Steve and the legendary Pat tomorrow night - good luck Pat!) so please bear with me as I muddle along... Noel welcomes us in his customary manner to this “Double Deal” week, wearing a pink/lilac/blue striped little number that resembles nothing so much as the top of a pair of hospital pyjamas. He greets the East & West Wings and reminds us of Daz’s game this afternoon, and that his winnings are going towards buying his daughters a pony – let’s hope that’s the nearest that tonight’s contestant will get to winning a Pony…

And without further delay, tonight's player is… Jo! I can’t say she’s made much of an impression on me so far, but she’s a pretty young blonde with a nice smile, and she can’t believe her luck as she heads down the Walk Of Wealth from her place on the West Wing, Box 2 in her arms. Jo’s a 25-show veteran, originally from London, though she’s been living in Ipswich for 7 years, and works for a graphics and design company in Colchester. She’s a little nervous, but describes herself as “quite lucky” and “adventurous,” with tales of bungy-jumping and skydiving to back that up. She’s accompanied today by her partner Mash, and I promise to avoid any potato-based puns for the duration.... Her photo sadly isn’t of Jo in mid-jump, but of her 1 year old nephew, currently living in Germany… she’s also brought along a little Buddha for luck, to be activated by rubbing its belly (but see Bal’s earlier mini-post regarding the wisdom of this!) As if to ensure that The Banker gets no clues about her whatsoever, she tells Noel she has no target amount she’s aiming to win, and with that, the usual housekeeping and a rather unkind comparison made between the Buddha and a beardless Ron, We’re off!

Round 1Box 5 to kick-off with, in the hands of Ashoka, and a rubbish start - £50,000. Next it’s Joseph with box 10, and it gets worse - £100,000 – ouch! Mash encourages Jo to keep going and she goes for box 4, and Amy reveals the £10. “We needed that,” says Noel, accurately, as Jo then goes for Frank and box 8, only to see £15,000 for her trouble – this isn’t going well, but she tells herself “it’s all gonna change” as she picks out today’s new boy Alan with box 6, who rewards Jo with a decent-in-comparison £5,000. A rough start by anyone’s standards, but “it could be worse” says Noel, grabbing any crumb of comfort he can to offer the slightly shellshocked Jo. The Banker calls and immediately burns into our hearts the image of himself unbuttoning his shirt and rubbing his own belly for luck… while we’re still coping with that, the offer comes in, a perfunctory £810.

Noel takes the opportunity to chat with today’s Hall Of Fame player, Mally, who took away £54,000 on 24th November last year. His gameplay strategy was that no-one gets the same box twice in a row and he made his choices accordingly… hardly the most scientific approach, but it worked for him! More from Mally later, but as we all know by now, no-one ever deals after round 1, and Jo’s no exception… “Things can only get Buddha” offers Noel to the massed groans of the audience…

Round 2Box 16 (Ryan) shows £3,000, followed by Box 1 (Ron, rubbing his own belly for luck) with £100. As we go into the first ad break, Noel encourages everyone to rub their bellies, and when we get back, Bianca opens box 12 to reveal 50p, getting a well-deserved “Woo!” from Jo. A better round, but she has a way to go to make up for the disastrous first one… we take a detour into the Hall Of Fame with Mally’s game. His is an interesting tale as it appears he was borderline destitute when he appeared on the show and his win has really helped him turn his life around. He teases us about the regular reunions that ex-players have and implied they have their own website – do we know anything about this or is this it? He also tells us he’s wearing the same jumper he wore for his game – let’s hope he’s washed it… back to the game and The Banker insists he won’t make the same mistakes with Jo as he did with Mally and offers £7,500, by common assent a good offer for this board, though Joseph maintains that The Banker “is throwing money around like a man with no arms.” While you’re working that one out, take my word for it that Jo says “No Deal” and we’re into round 3…

Round 3Box 3 (Chrissie) - £500Box 7 (Melanie) - £1Box 20 (Eileen) - £5An amazing all-blue round just when it was needed… a few woo’s and rounds of applause later and Jo’s visibly feeling better, as is Mash. Noel asks a few players what they think the offer will be, and most think it will at least double from the previously offered £7,500, so there’s an audibly disappointed “ooh” when the offer of £12,500 comes in, along with The Banker telling us there are 2 things he hates – all-blue rounds and Joseph’s advice. With almost indecent haste, Jo rejects this offer and we’re off again.

Round 4Box 14 – Nessie’s had 9 reds in a row and is sure she has a blue…. and sure enough it’s yet another red, but only £1,000, which is “alright” by Jo. Box 13 next and Scott reveals the 1p, depriving that club of another potential member. The big man in green gives Jo a cheery thumbs-aloft and we’re into commercials… Buddha looks on, everyone’s holding hands, chanting “Blue, blue, blue,” and when we come back Lee opens box 17 and exposes £750 – another great round! Jo runs over and kisses Lee, pointedly ignoring Noel who milks the whole thing for maximum comic value… however, the offer is another disappointment - £18,000. Joseph describes it as derisory and says £25,000 was what he was expecting. While Jo’s doing a lot of soul-searching with Mash, Mally offers that this has a lot in common with his game, i.e. a bad start, gradually getting better and better. There’s a nice moment when Mally makes reference to Jo being a good-looking girl in front of Mash, and gets a red card from Noel in return… Jo and Mash are still talking it over, and Mash finally says he thinks there’s one more deal in there, “but I’m usually wrong!” Regardless, this makes up Jo’s mind and it’s “No Deal.” Bring it on!

Round 5Mash sticks around for the next 3 boxes:Box 9 (Wayne) - £75,000, and the dream is starting to crumble, but the audience breaks into applause to encourage Jo…Box 7 (Mark) - £20,000, and it’s getting worse, but still more applause…Box 22 (Debbie) - £50 – just pulling this round out of the fire, leaving the £35,000 and £250,000 in play with 3 blues - this must be a better offer.Noel makes Mash sit down, and makes us sit through the commercials before telling us that the offer is a “sensible” £31,000 (Mrs. Adie guessed it would be in the mid-twenties, and she’s usually right, so I’d consider this a generous offer!) Jo asks for a sweep of the wings, and all but one of them says she should Deal (or “Dink” in one case – a private joke we assume!) Unless it was lost in the edit, Jo doesn’t bother consulting Mash, and when the time comes, she goes for the eminently sensible decision to “Deal!” As Noel points out, her courage in holding out for one more deal after the last offer has been rewarded, but what could she have won?

(Hypothetical) Round 6Box 15 (Trevor) – 10p, and “ooohs” all round…Box 21 (Pennie) - £250, and doubts creeping in that she may have the £250,000 in her box…Box 19 (Yvonne) - £250,000! Jo shows the most emotion she has all night, screaming “Oh my God” (as well she might) in relief…

(Hypothetical) Round 7Noel opens Jo’s box to reveal… £35,000, slightly taking the edge off her impressive win, and leaving Teresa to show the remaining £1,000 in her box 18.

In summary, this was a fairly average game despite the high win, whose ups and downs were evened out by Jo being a bit of a “flat” contestant, which I think was emphasised by the relative lack of communication with The Banker, who kept his calls very short, especially as the game went on. Anyway, it's been a joy recapping tonight's episode for you all - thanks to Iain & Sue for letting me into the party, keep the faith and NO DEAL!

PS thanks to Mrs. Adie for missing the Brazil game so I could do this tonight! x

You know, it struck me while watching this game, that the key to the top games is having awful starts. And I reckon I know why this is.

Firstly, by taking out big numbers at the start, the offers are always low, and so it takes away the difficult decisions. Gaz's game is the best example of this. Until the last two offers he really have very little choice but to keep going.

And secondly, the more reds you take out, the more likely you are to then find a blue. This works conversely, which is why good starts almost always end with bad (or early) finishes.

Jo's game started extremely badly. But after the first round she was extremely likely to start finding blues. But after round 5, when the reds became the majority (5 to 3), thats when its down to pure luck, and no amount of statistics or odds can really affect your decisions. Its down to pure nerve.

Nice report Adie by the way :-)

Oh and also, Mr Stats-Person, is it me or has double deal week seen a high prize average so far (apart from Carltons game obviously)? There seems to have been a lot of five-figure sums in recent days.

Still waiting for the big one though, I'm telling you, it will happen this week, or I will start calling myself Turnip.

Hi Chris, I've been chewing over the "bad start/good finish" correlation myself and it does have a certain inevitability about it, as long as the early reds you get rid of aren't all of the big 5 of course... other than that:

1) thanks for the compliment, much appreciated, and I've a lot more respect for Iain & Sue's daily grind now I can tell you!

2) I thought that recent wins were bigger than usual too, but the last 11 shows have averaged just under £17,500, only £1,000 higher than the series average... just an illusion I'm afraid!

3) I'll be very suspicious if the £250,000 is won this week, just as I was when Judith Keppel won the first "Millionaire" million in the same week as "The Weakest Link" happened to debut on BBC1 primetime...